Dolor, Kianah D.

BTVTEd 1-N
Dr. Jose Rizal's retraction is a hot debate by scholars and historians even until now
as to the matter that if he did really retract before his execution. There were accounts
proving that Dr. Rizal did retract and accounts that he did not retract at all.
I think that Dr. Rizal, being a staunch critic of the Spanish colonial government and of
the wrong doings of the Catholic Church, did not retract at all. This is because the
evidences that prove he did not retract is strong. Starting with the authenticity of the
retraction document, Dr. Rizal allegedly signed it and the contents of the document
was published in the newspapers. Upon knowing of what Dr. Rizal did, his family
requested to see the original document so that they can verify whether it was his
handwriting or not and yet the Jesuit priests said that they lost the document. In
1935, 39 years after Dr. Rizal's execution, the Catholic Church found in their archives
what they claim to be the "original" document of Dr. Rizal's retraction, Dr. Ricardo
Pascual sought permission from the archbishop to examine the document, he
identified inconsistencies in the handwriting and the format of the document that it
was not of Dr. Rizal's own way of writing and he concluded that the document is but
a forgery. In the case of the authenticity of the document alone, it is already
doubtable whether it was really legitimate or more if it really existed. Another
evidence that proves that Dr. Rizal did not retract is that when he allegedly signed
the document, one of his terms was to be wed with Josephine Bracken which the
Catholic Church says that they were wed a day before Rizal was executed, however,
there were no evidences of public records or a marriage certificate of Dr. Rizal and
Bracken to prove that he was wed and did retract. If Dr. Rizal did so, his family would
have known of it immediately because he would have told them the truth in his
communication letter to them and when they saw him before he was executed but
there were no mentions of his retraction and that is why the family was seeking the
original document because they do not believe that Dr. Rizal did retract all of his
life's works.
Analyzing the pieces of evidences on the matter results to the question of why would
Dr. Rizal retract all his works when those works of his was meant to expose the
atrocities of both the Spanish Colonial Government and the Catholic Church at the
time in controlling the Filipino when all of his life, he fought the same institutions that
imprisoned him, it is in no doubt an indirect admission of guilt by both the Spanish
Colonial Government and the Catholic Church to silence their critic. Another point is
that of the contents of the Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell), which sparked and
ignited the lives of Filipinos to stand up and fight against the Spaniards, it is very
contradictory to the retraction document that he allegedly signed because the Mil
Ultimo Adios proves that Dr. Rizal loved his country and remained defiant until his
death against the oppressors of his country and his countrymen.
With the evidences presented and analyzed, I stand by my point that Dr. Rizal did
not retract as he remained as defiant as he was to the oppression that crippled the
lives of Filipinos and proof of his conviction that he died loving his country.